Decentralised Finance (DeFi): refers to a decentralised (peer-to-peer) financial infrastructure based on blockchain technology. Smart contracts are used to create protocols that replicate existing financial services in a more open, interoperable and transparent manner, without intermediaries. DeFi already offers a wide range of applications: for example, buying US dollar-pegged assets (known as stablecoins) on decentralised exchanges, transferring these assets to a decentralised lending platform, and then adding interest-bearing instruments to a decentralised liquidity pool. (Publication date: 18 March 2021)